River Oaks Trace Property Owners Association

Welcome to the latest iteration of my site dedicated to River Oaks Trace. As I did in my previous site, I intend to give relevant information that you may find useful and even impactful. More than that, I want you, the members of River Oaks Trace, to participate in this venue by sharing things important to you and which you think may be of interest to others. Those things may include opinions, observations, compliments, complaints, photos, birthday wishes, holiday recipes, etc.

As webmaster, author, and monitor I must make a few rules. If you submit items to be posted here, please focus on family and community. Let’s stay away from politics and controversial matters outside our immediate neighborhood; there are plenty of other sites for that. If you have something to share, send it to me by text, email, regular mail, or other form of communication and I will transcribe it into a post for you. It’s even better if you can send photos as well; visuals make an article more interesting. If you need help with photos, I have 60 years experience in photography along with skills in Photoshop and graphic design.

Occasionally, there may be posts that contain sensitive information not suitable for outsiders to see. In such cases I will protect those posts with a passcode and I will give the passcode out only to ROT members. Passcodes will expire within 12 to 24 hours, after which a new passcode will be required. I will distribute passcodes with a text alert.

Attribution: Also on the subject of security, I need to know your identity for any articles that you submit for publication. I will normally know this through your method of submission–email, text, phone, etc. There are, however, hackers who like to create mischief by spoofing legitimate contributors; therefore, I will need your full name (first and last) along with your submissions.

Referring to the previous paragraph, for security reasons I will not include your full name in posts that I publish for you. At most, I will include only your first name and the initial of your last name; however, I suggest you provide me an alias under which to publish your articles. Examples of aliases would be “Happy Frog” and “Over the Hill”. You can make up your own, of course. You can be anonymous…mm

On Saturday, 9 May 2026, Brady Owens graduated Harding University after years of hard work. Brady is the son of Carrie (Owens) Friar (#12). Congratulations to Brady for earning his BBA degree and best wishes for a bright future whether he enters the workforce or pursues his Master’s. God bless you bro’.

I need to make a plea for the organization pictured above–Sweet Paws Rescue. It is an operation run by husband and wife Sam and Sabrina Henson who manage it out of their home north of Judsonia. Their primary aim is to rescue dogs who have been abandoned, tortured, or discarded by their owners. Some of the details of these rescues are horrifying; the brutality found just in White County is shocking especially when scaled against the problem nationwide.

If you think I’m joking, watch this (Facebook video)

Martha and I first encountered Sweet Paws about three years ago. Since then we regularly donate supplies, food, equipment and money; but, what we give is far short of the need. Sam and Sabrina have formed a non-profit for their rescue efforts and do get some help from other sources; however, they are faced with a never-ending supply of dogs needing help.

Sabrina is a powerhouse activist when it comes to saving her puppies (and adults too). She will drive to almost anywhere to fetch and rehome them–even hundreds of miles. Police departments, humane societies, puppy mills, and individuals across the state know about her mission and routinely contact her about dogs which are no longer wanted. She has an incredibly energetic and charismatic personality when it comes to collecting her canine charges. Collecting is just the first step. When she brings them home she bathes and grooms them. She gets rid of parasites like fleas and ticks, then she deworms them. She gives them plenty of food and water and whatever else needed to bring them back to good health. For more serious matters like external, or suspected internal, injuries, she takes them to a veterinarian. She does all the above while showing her dogs lots of love along the way.

The veterinarian whom Sabrina uses is sympathetic to her mission; he discounts his service for her, but must charge something. Her visits, understandably, are frequent and so the charges mount up. Her bill right now is over $4,600.00 and she needs help. Please visit her Facebook page by clicking on the image above; and, if you are moved, please consider a donation. Thanks…mm